Public defender's office shines

It is often said that the wheels of justice grind slow, but they grind exceedingly fine. What is often left out is what happens when they're grinding in the wrong direction, and what it takes to stop them.

In America, the burden of proof rests on the prosecution -- where it should rest, given that we invest our government with the power to execute convicts or imprison them for life -- and given that it is not unheard of that people are wrongly accused and sometimes wrongfully convicted.

So it's something of a story that at the start of this month, after a jury took less than three hours to acquit him of murder in the trial involving the 2002 slaying of 43-year-old Beverly Jean Jacob of Eureka, Joseph Eugene Miller, 43, was released after nearly one year in jail.

For this, Miller has attorneys Greg Elvine-Kreis and Heidi Holmquist and investigator Paul Morris -- all of the county's Public Defender's Office -- to thank.

They deserve a nod of appreciation from all of us.

In no way does it amount to disrespect for the victim, prosecutors or police to applaud Humboldt County's public defenders for doing their duty, even as their office faces the seemingly perpetual threat of budget cuts, as it last did in 2011. Proposed cuts, thankfully rejected by the county Board of Supervisors, would have forced the Public Defender's Office to lay off two senior attorneys, which would have likely led to the court appointing private attorneys to help with the case load.

In the case of Elvine-Kreis, Holmquist and Morris, their due diligence and hard work uncovered enough new evidence and signs of a haphazard police investigation a decade ago to raise enough doubts in the jury. So much so that the defendant was not only spared conviction but was hugged by two of his jurors after their verdict was announced.

The Miller case stands as an example of how the American justice system works and how we need public defenders every bit as much as we need prosecutors, judges and police. We salute Humboldt County's Public Defender's Office for a job well done.